Today at the L.A. press conference announcing the May 31st Shane Mosley vs Zab Judah “High Stakes” showdown, there was a bit of a lull following the lead in luncheon as assembled media, HBO execs, assorted fight people (including Jimmy from Fight Quest), waited for Sugar Shane to arrive.

After some jawing between Jack Mosley and the often imitated, never duplicated Crocodile (he of “Guerrilla Warfare!!!” fame) who now resides in Judah’s camp, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer took

the stage.

“For those who saw this weekend’s fights, you saw some great action packed fights,” he began. “We will continue along that line. We had Pacquiao/Marquez a week ago. We are going to England this week to announce Hatton /Lazcano in the U.S. on the Versus Network. We are very excited about that. I think the lightweight division, with Casamayor winning this weekend against Katsidis in a great, great, fight; I see a lot of opportunities there. Maybe with Juan Diaz. Perhaps, Nate Campbell. So there is going to be many, many more exciting fights this year.”

It was a nice opening but the pause after it made me realize it was a bit of filibustering, as Shane was still not in the room.

“Richard?” I asked. “Can we ask questions right now?”

The room cracked up as Schaefer smiled at my save and replied, “Yeah, I

guess so,” with a bit of relief and a shrug that said ‘We got the time.’

“Why is Juan Diaz more of an option than Nate Campbell? Or is he?” I asked.

“Well, I think Juan Diaz in my opinion kind of had an off night. I think Don King played a lot of mind games with him. And so I think that Juan Diaz is one of the most exciting fighters and he deserves an opportunity. Because I believe it was Don King that was responsible for what happened there. I don’t want to take anything away from Nate Campbell. He’s a great fighter. He’s a champion. And I’m sure that eventually these fights will happen.”

“Both guys are 36,” I offered. “How much longer do you think we should wait?”

“Well Bernard Hopkins is 42, so… or 46,or 80, I don’t know. No, I think you have a young fighter, 23 years old, you play these mind games with him by Mr. King. I just think that’s just not the way a fighter should treated by his promoter. We’ll see. Nate Campbell is certainly a possibility. But there are a lot of possibilities. The fact is there are a lot of great names at 135 pound weight class. Some of those have indicated they want to move up to the 140 pound weight class. I think a lot of the action that we saw in the 130 pound weight class; they’re moving up to the 135 pound weight class. That’s where you will see a lot of action there. Marco Antonio Barrera is considering coming back 135. My guess is that many Pacquiao will be at that weight as well. So there is going to be a lot of possible combinations and Nate Campbell is one of them. But he certainly isn’t the only one. Here is Shane.”

And with that Shane Mosley entered the building and the press conference began.